Margaret Picknett, mother of the former pupils of Gordon’s School in West End, wrote to Mr Malins after her appeals for an investigation into why her sons’ German exam papers were inaccurately marked were ignored. In September the News and Mail reported how Luke Picknett, 18, almost lost the chance of studying languages at Cambridge University when Edexcel incorrectly awarded him a B-grade instead of the A-grade his answers deserved. Luke is now studying in Cambridge after a priority re-mark exposed the error. Three years earlier, Luke’s brother Ben had the same paper wrongly marked by Edexcel, throwing his place at Durham University into doubt. A re-mark doubled the marks, guaranteeing him his place. Mrs Picknett said: “I would like to see the board investigate why exactly the same thing has happened to two members of my family within three years in exactly the same exam. “I wrote to Edexcel on September 15 and again on September 29 because I had no reply and thought the letter might have been lost. “I rang the board on October 11 and got its call centre in Milton Keynes. I explained the situation and was told the board would handle it as a matter of importance. I then wrote another letter on the same day saying I was amazed the board hadn’t acknowledged or replied to my letters.” After Mrs Picknett wrote to Mr Malins describing her exasperation with Edexcel’s silence, he wrote to the board on October 3 and received a letter a week later. Mrs Picknett added: “The board replied to my MP about my letter, saying it was looking into it but it has not replied to me. The fact I have been ignored has incensed me.” Mr Malins described Edexcel’s conduct as “disgraceful”. He said: “It is bad enough Ben and Luke had their grades incorrectly graded but to ignore Mrs Picknett’s repeated requests for an explanation is appalling practice. “I hope we will be able to heap enough pressure on Edexcel to get this matter resolved and maybe it will go some way towards stopping it from happening again.” The News and Mail was awaiting a response from Edexcel about the matter at the time of going to press.